Al Gore's Current TV in Danger of Getting Dropped

Is Current TV — Former Vice President Al Gore’s foray into cable television — in danger of getting the ax from Time Warner?

Nobody is saying, but there’s no question the cable giant is comfortable with pulling the plug on underperformers.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Time Warner Cable announced it will drop the low-rated arts channel Ovation as of Dec. 31.

Ovation is "among the poorest performing networks," Time Warner said in a statement. It noted that “less than 1 percent of our customers on any given day’’ tuned in.

Last April, Reuters reported that Time Warner was considering dumping Current TV if its ratings didn’t improve. And earlier this month, Time Warner Chief Executive Glenn Britt warned that its money losers were in danger.

Current TV has even lower ratings than Ovation.

The Journal says a notice on Time Warner's website identified Current TV, Hallmark Movie Channel, IFC, and WE tv as channels with relatively small audiences whose contracts expire soon and could be dropped.

Current TV, launched in 2005, says its primary focus is on “political commentary, news analysis, and thought-provoking programming.’’

Time Warner’s elimination of Ovation will take it out of more than 7 million homes. It will still be available on services like DirecTV.